Horus, the Egyptian Falcon-god, is "lord of
the sky" and a symbol of divine kingship. His name ("Har"
in Egyptian) probably means "the high," "the
far-off," "the distant one" and is connected
with "Hry" ("one who is above/over"). The name
appears on Egyptian hieroglyphs in the royal protocol at the very
beginning of dynastic civilization (c. 3000 BC).

The roles, local cult foundations, and titles or epithets of Horus are
sometimes correlated with distinct or preferred forms in iconography: for
example, the falcon or falcon-headed man, the winged disk, the child with
a sidelock of hair (sometimes in his mother's arms). Egyptologists
therefore often speak of distinct Horuses or Horus-gods (see Oxford
Encyclopedia, vol 2, "Horus" p. 119ff; and Hart, Routledge
Dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses, "Horus" p. 70ff).

In ancient Egypt several gods are known by this name, but the most
important was the son of Osiris and Isis, identified as king of Egypt. To repeat what I summarized
elsewhere: Osiris is the oldest son of Geb ("earth" personified) and Nout
or Nut ("mother of the gods" and goddess of the sky), the husband of Isis, whose myth was one of the best known and whose cult was one of the most widespread in pharaonic Egypt. The mythology of Osiris is not preserved completely from an early date, but the essentials are related by
Plutarch in On Isis and Osiris
(De Iside et Osiride).

With the rise of the full-blown Osiris-Isis-Horus myth, the living king
was identified as an earthly Horus and the dead king (his
father/predecessor) as Osiris. When the king died, he became Osiris, and
Horus is his royal heir and successor. The most common geneology of Horus
is as the son of Osiris and Isis, making a tenth on the family tree of the
Heliopolitan Ennead. But the full picture is more complex: Hathor (herself
identified with Isis) also appears as the mother of Horus; Horus the Elder
(Haroeris) can appear in the Heliopolitan family tree as a brother
of Osiris and son of Geb and Nut, thus an uncle of Horus in his more usual
manifestations. Therefore, Horus and Seth are sometimes described as nephew and
uncle, sometimes as brothers. In a battle over the throne of
Egypt, Horus fought with Seth, and despite losing
an eye, was successful in avenging the death of his father Osiris,
becoming his legitimate successor.

The textual and mythological materials relating to Horus are extremely
rich, comprising hymns, mortuary texts, ritual texts, dramatic/theological
texts, stories, the Old Coptic and Greek so-called magical papyri, and the
most complete ancient exposition of the Osiris narrative, Plutarch's De
Iside et Osiride (in Latin translation). In characteristic Egyptian
fashion, many of the hymns, mortuary, and ritual texts incorporated
substantial narrative material or are taken from narrative, although they
are not comprehensive, consecutive myths per se. In addition to
Plutarch's account in Greek, the most substantial sources for the
Osiris-Isis-Horus cycle include the following (see Oxford
Encyclopedia, vol 2, "Horus" p. 121ff):

the Memphite Theology or Shabaqo Stone (generally dated as late as
the New Kingdom, c. 1540-1070 BC);

the Mystery Play of the Succession;

the Pyramid Texts (from the late Old Kingdom, c. 2575-2150
BC);

the Coffin Texts, especially Spell 148;

the Great Osiris hymn in the Louvre;

the Late Egyptian Contendings of Horus and Seth;

the Metternich Stela and other cippus texts;

the Ptolemaic Myth of Horus at Edfu (also known as the Triumph
of Horus);

These texts take us with a number of variations and contrasting
perspectives, from the conception and birth of Horus, through his
childhood hidden in the marshes, his protection by Isis, his conflict with
Seth and his followers, and his succession as legitimate king. The
"Myth [or Triumph] of Horus" is preserved in the Temple of Edfu, inscribed on the inner
faces of the east and west enclosure walls. Previously no complete
translation of the various texts which compose it appeared in any
language, though the actual texts and reliefs have since been long
published by Naville, Textes relatifs au Mythe d'Horus recueillis dans
le Temple d'Edfou (Geneva, 1870), then in the magnificent edition
of Chassinat, Le Temple d'Edfou (Cairo, 1928-1934), and later in
scholarly and popular works by Dieter Kurth, e.g. The Temple of Edfu: a guide by an ancient Egyptian
priest (Cairo, 2004). The myth comprises five texts (see Blackman
/ Lloyd, Gods, Priests, and Men, p. 255ff, in articles by H.W.
Fairman), which are:

The Legend of the Winged Disk. The chief actors are Horus of
Behdet and Seth. Re and Thoth provide a running commentary and
numerous somewhat tedious puns which detract from the flow and
interest of the narrative. The language is stilted and formal, and
somewhat restricted in vocabulary and forms of expression.

The story of a fight between Horus, son of Isis (who is
assisted by Horus of Behdet), and Seth. This portion follows
immediately after A.

A dramatized version of the exploits of Horus which
was enacted at his festival (not worded in the form of a connected
story). After texts referring to the ten harpoons
with which Horus attacked his enemy, come songs by the Royal Children
and by the princesses of Upper and Lower Egypt together with the women
of Mendes (Pe and Dep), and finally two versions of the dismemberment
of Seth and the distribution of the parts of his body among various
gods and cities.

Seth, son of Nut, assumes the form of a red hippopotamus and goes to
Elephantine. Horus, son of Isis, pursues him and overtakes him near
Edfu, and after the ensuing fight Seth flees northward and Horus
assumes the office of his father.

Horus is mentioned as lord of Lower
Egypt, living at Memphis, and Seth as lord of Upper Egypt, living in
Shas-hetep. Horus and Seth fight, the one in the form of a youth, the
other as a red donkey. Horus finally triumphs and cuts off the leg of
Seth. This story is written in a pronounced Late-Egyptian idiom.

In ancient Egyptian tradition, at least as preserved to us, the
Osiris-Isis-Horus myth was never recounted as a coherent whole; rather, it
served as a source of allusions for a large number of religious texts. It
was a sequence of scenes
that was unmistakably rooted in the mortuary cult. The only texts that
furnish us with a continuous narrative are written in Greek, by Diodorus
(1st century BC) and especially by Plutarch (c. 46 - 120 AD). But in their
care about a single, meaningful, stimulating story these authors seem to
have strayed from the Egyptian form of the myth. The myth has both a
prehistory and a starting point. The prehistory is not narrated in the
Egyptian texts, yet it is necessary for all that follows (see Jan Assman, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt,
p. 23).

The basic Egyptian myth goes like this: Osiris became ruler of the land, but was tricked and slain by his jealous brother, Seth. According to the Greek version of the story, Typhon (Seth) had a beautiful coffin made to Osiris' exact measurements, and with 72 conspirators at a banquet, promised it to the one who would fit it. Each guest tried it for size, and Osiris was the one to fit exactly. Immediately Seth and the conspirators nailed the lid shut, sealed the coffin in lead, and threw it into the Nile. The coffin was eventually borne across the sea to
Byblos, where Isis, who had been continually searching for her husband, finally located it.
She returns the body to Egypt where Seth discovers it, cuts the corpse into pieces, and scatters them throughout the country. Isis transforms herself into a kite, and with her sister
Nephthys, searches for and finds all the pieces (except the male member, which she replicates), reconstitutes the body, and before embalming to give Osiris eternal life, she revivifies it, couples with it, and thus conceives
Horus.

"Of the parts of Osiris's body the only one which Isis did not find was the male member, for the reason that this had been at once tossed into the river, and the lepidotus, the sea-bream, and the pike had fed upon it; and it is from these very fishes the Egyptians are most scrupulous in abstaining. But Isis made a replica of the member to take its place, and consecrated the
phallus, in honour of which the Egyptians even at the present day celebrate a festival."
(Plutarch,
Moralia V, On Isis and Osiris, 18)

According to the principal version of the story cited by Plutarch, Isis had already given birth to her son, but according to the Egyptian
Hymn to Osiris, she conceived him by the revivified corpse of her husband.

Osiris' rule plays a great role in Egyptian texts. They almost always
speak of him as ruler of the realm of the dead, an office he assumed only
as a dead god, and almost never about his earthly kingship, which he
exercised over gods and men in the world above as successor of Geb.
Osiris' reign came to a violent end as he was slain by his brother, Seth. Later Horus avenges his father Osiris' death and succeeds him without completely destroying Seth.
Thus did death come into the world, confronting the gods with a great
problem. This is the prehistory of which there is no coherent narrative in
the Egyptian texts (see Jan Assmann, p. 24).

The slaying and dismemberment of Osiris, and his re-joining and
rejuvenation by his wife Isis, is a common theme of a large corpus of
texts, which do not actually describe it but rather presuppose it as the
trigger for various actions whose aim is to cope with this catastrophe.
Just as it was Osiris' undoing that he was the first of the divine rulers
to have a brother and thus a rival for the throne, so his sisters became
his "salvation." Isis, his sister-wife, was the first to take
action by traversing the land to collect his scattered body parts.

A Hymn to Osiris from Dynasty 18 (stela Louvre C 286) narrates
her actions in the form of two scenes: (1) Isis' search and her care for
the body; and (2) the conception, birth, and childhood of Horus.

Isis the powerful, protectress of her
brother, who sought him tirelessly,
who traversed this land in mourning and did not rest until she found him;
who gave him shade with her feathers and air with her wings;
who cried out, the mourning woman of her brother
who summoned dancers for the Weary of Heart;

who took in his seed and created the
heir,
who suckled the child in solitude, no one knew where,
who brought him, when his arm was strong,
into the hall of Geb -- the Ennead rejoiced:

Isis' activities with regard to the corpse of Osiris culminate in the
posthumous conception of Horus. In the accounts of Greek historians
Diodorus and Plutarch, Isis recovers all the body parts of the slain god
except for his virile member, which had been swallowed by a fish. She was
thus obliged to replace this member with an artificial one that she uses
as an instrument for her posthumous insemination to produce Horus.
Although the Egyptian texts seldom mention this scene, the locus
classicus (classical passage) is from the Pyramid Texts (Spell
366):

Isis comes to you, rejoicing
for love of you,
that her seed might issue into her, it being sharp as Sothis.

Horus, the sharp one, who comes forth from
you
in his name "Horus, who is in Sothis,"
may it be well with you through him
in your name "Spirit in the dndrw-barque."

Horus has protected you in
his name "Horus protector of his father."

(Pyramid Texts, Spell 366; from Jan
Assmann, page 25)

Here is some commentary on the "conception of Horus" from various Egyptian scholars:

"...drawings on contemporary funerary papyri show her as a kite
hovering above Osiris, who is revived enough to have an erection and
impregnate his wife." (Lesko, Great Goddesses of Egypt,
p. 162)

"After having sexual intercourse, in the form of a bird, with
the dead god she restored to life, she gave birth to a posthumous son,
Horus." (Dunand / Zivie-Coche, Gods and Men in Egypt, p. 39)

"Through her magic Isis revivified the sexual member of Osiris
and became pregnant by him, eventually giving birth to their child,
Horus." (Richard Wilkinson, Complete gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt,
p. 146)

"Isis already knows that she is destined to bear a child who
will be king. In order to bring this about, she has to revive the
sexual powers of Osiris, just as the Hand Goddess aroused the penis of
the creator to create the first life." (Pinch, Handbook of Egyptian Mythology,
p. 80)

In short, this was NO "virgin birth" as is clear also
from repeated references to Osiris' "seed." A "miraculous
birth" perhaps because it involves a dead and then revived husband, but not a virginal
conception (sometimes wrongly called an "immaculate
conception" -- that has to do in Catholic theology with Mary's
conception without Original Sin, not Jesus' conception) nor a virgin birth
as contained in the Bible (cf. Matthew
1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38).

A longer passage is from the Coffin
Texts (Spell 148) which describes the birth and flight of Horus (as
the Falcon god), and has further references to Osiris' "seed":

TAKING SHAPE AS A FALCON. The lightening
flash strikes, the gods are afraid, Isis wakes pregnant with the seed of
her brother Osiris. She is uplifted, (even she) the widow, and her heart
is glad with the seed of her brother Osiris. She says:

"O you gods, I am Isis, the sister of
Osiris, who wept for the father of the gods, (even) Osiris who judged the
slaughterings of the Two Lands. His seed is within my womb, I have moulded
the shape of the god within the egg as my son who is at the head of the
Ennead. What he shall rule is this land, the heritage of his (grand-)
father Geb, what he shall say is concerning his father, what he shall kill
is Seth the enemy of his father Osiris. Come, you gods, protect him within
my womb, for he is known in your hearts. He is your lord, this god who is
in his egg, blue-haired of form, lord of the gods, and great and beautiful
are the vanes [feathery part of plume as distinct from the stem] of the
two blue plumes."

"Oh!" says Atum, "guard your
heart, O woman!"

"[Isis says:] How do you know? He is
the god, lord and heir of the Ennead, who made you within the egg. I am
Isis, one more spirit-like and august than the gods; the god is within
this womb of mine and he is the seed of Osiris."

Then says Atum: "You are pregnant and
you are hidden [allusion to pregnant Isis hiding in the marshes of Chemmis],
O girl! You will give birth, being pregnant for the gods, seeing that he
is the seed of Osiris. May that villain who slew his father not come, lest
he break the egg in its early stages, for the Great-of-Magic will guard
against him."

Thus says Isis: "Hear this, you
gods, which Atum, Lord of the Mansion of the Sacred Images, has said. He
has decreed for me protection for my son within my womb, he has knit
together an entourage about him within this womb of mine, for he [Atum]
knows that he [Horus] is the heir of Osiris, and a guard over the Falcon
who is in this womb of mine has been set by Atum, Lord of the gods. Go
up on earth, that I may give you praise [said to the unborn Horus]. The
retainers of your father Osiris will serve you, I will make your name,
for you have reached the horizon, having passed by the battlements of
the Mansion of Him whose name is hidden. Strength has gone up within my
flesh, power has reached into my flesh, power has reached...."
[there is a textual omission at this point]

"...who conveys the Sunshine-god,
and he has prepared his own place, being seated at the head of the gods
in the entourage of the Releaser." [unidentifiable speaker,
probably either Isis or Atum]

"[Isis speaks to her son who has now
been born:] O Falcon, my son Horus, dwell in this land of your father
Osiris in this your name of Falcon who is on the battlements of the
Mansion of Him whose name is hidden. I ask that you shall be always in
the suite of Re of the horizon in the prow of the primeval bark for ever
and ever."

Isis goes down to the Releaser who brings
Horus, for Isis has asked that he may be the Releaser as the leader of
eternity.

"See Horus, you gods! [Horus
proclaims his power] I am Horus, the Falcon who is on the battlements of
the Mansion of Him whose name is hidden. My flight aloft has reached the
horizon, I have overpassed the gods of the sky, I have made my position
more prominent than that of the Primeval Ones. The Contender [Seth] has
not attained my first flight, my place is far from Seth, the enemy of my
father Osiris. I have used the roads of eternity to the dawn, I go up in
my flight, and there is no god who can do what I have done. I am
aggressive against the enemy of my father Osiris, he having been set
under my sandals in this my name of.... [meaning unknown]. I am Horus,
born of Isis, whose protection was made within the egg; the fiery blast
of your mouths does not attack me, and what you may say against me does
not reach me, I am Horus, more distant of place than men or gods; I am
Horus son of Isis."

(Egyptian Coffin Text, Spell 148,
translation found in The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, volume 1,
p. 125-127, by R.O. Faulkner; another translation with commentary can be
found in Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark,
p. 213-217)

This text begins with the dark days immediately after the death of
Osiris, when Seth and his henchmen are tyrannizing over the world. Horus
assumes control of his own destiny. He appears as a falcon and soars up
into the sky beyond the flight of the original bird-soul, beyond the stars
(the "gods of Nut") and all the divinities of olden time whose
souls inhabit the constellations. In so doing he brings back light and the
assurance of a new day, thus subduing Seth, who personifies the terrors of
darkness and death. The opening section moves within the main Osiris myth,
but this disappears when Isis suddenly realizes she will give birth,
not to a child, but to a falcon. Isis dreams prophetically that the child
quickening in her womb will grow up to restore the rightful order of the
world. In a new scene, the birth is about to take place, Isis comes
forward to Atum who is surrounded by his divine courtiers. Finally, Horus is born and
flys up of his own accord (see Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt,
p. 213ff).

There were two primary gods called Horus: the first was the original falcon who
flew up at the beginning of time -- the most ancient bird -- and the other
was the son of Isis and heir to Osiris. They are compounded in this Coffin
Text. Instead of being born in the Delta swamps and growing up in secret,
Horus is offered a place in the sun's boat, but he transcends both his
earthly fate and that as a subordinate to Re. He flies up and across the
night sky of the Underworld to land on the edge of the world, bringing
with him the twilight that comes just before full day. The old belief is
that Horus was the leader of the decanal stars which circled around the
sky in the path of the sun. The appearance of Horus just before dawn is
the mark of a new year, and the world's great age begins anew (see Clark,
p. 216-217).

As early as the Old Kingdom it was envisaged that Horus wrested the
kingship of Egypt from the god Seth: Horus takes his father's house from
his father's brother Seth. Horus then triumphs over his paternal uncle.
However there is a conflation of the two myths because in the Osiris
cycle, Osiris and Seth were brothers, while in an independent
tradition Horus and Seth were brothers feuding for the throne.
Normally Horus is the ascendant, but the supporters of Seth were never
completely suppressed (indicating perhaps as the meaning of the myth, that
evil will always be with us, and we must be vigilant).

Seth, the embodiment of disorder, was predominantly seen as a rival
of Horus, a would-be usurper who assassinated Osiris and was defeated.
However, Seth was also portrayed in a balance with Horus, so that
the pair represented a bipolar, balanced embodiment of kingship. Thus, on
the side of the throne, Horus and Seth -- symmetrical and equal -- tie the
papyrus and lotus around the sema-sign (sm3 =
"unity"; also the end of the Thutmose III Poetical Stela). From
the Shabaqo Stone in the British Museum, a copy of an original document
from the Pyramid Age carved in Dynasty XXV, there is a concise statement
of the dispute between Horus and Seth. The god Geb is the judge and makes
a preliminary decision to divide Egypt between the protagonists: Seth will
be king of Upper Egypt and Horus will rule over Lower Egypt, the border
being the "Division of the Two Lands", i.e. the apex of the Nile
Delta at Memphis where Osiris is said to have drowned. On reflection Geb
revises this judgment awarding the whole inheritance of Egypt to Horus. It
is stressed that this result is amicably accepted -- the reed of Seth and
papyrus of Horus being attached to the door of the god Ptah to symbolize
that they were pacified and united.

A fuller and more scandalous description of the trial survives in
Papyrus Chester Beatty I written in the reign of Ramesses V (Dynasty XX).
The sun-god in this tribunal is not sympathetic to Horus' case to be ruler
of Egypt, dismissing him as a youngster with halitosis and preferring the
older claimant Seth. Horus pleads that he is being defrauded of his lawful
patrimony. Then occurs a series of episodes involving Horus and Seth, each
trying to outwit the other and win over the court. In one contest, the two
gods are hippopotamuses who intend to see if they can remain submerged
under water for three months. Isis refuses to take this opportunity of
killing Seth with a harpoon. Horus, enraged, savagely attacks his mother
and escapes into the desert. Seth finds him and cuts out both his eyes.
Hathor, using gazelle's milk, restores Horus' eyes.

On another occasion Seth suggests a race in boats of stone. Horus
secretly builds a vessel of pine covered with plaster to imitate stone.
Seth's boat of 36 meters of solid stone, sinks and he turns himself into a
hippo. Horus is prevented from slaying Seth by the other
gods.

Since the beginning of the 20th century in Egyptological research,
much debate has ensued over whether the struggle between Horus and Seth
was primarily historical/geo-political, or cosmic/symbolic. When the full
Osiris complex became visible, Seth appears as the murderer of Osiris and
would-be killer of the child Horus. The symbolism of Horus' eventual triumph
over Seth (e.g. the pharaoh cutting the throat of an oryx or spearing a
turtle) permeates many temple reliefs. It also lies behind the gilded
wooden statuette of Tutankhamun standing on a papyrus boat, lasso in one
hand, harpoon in the other: the king is in the act of spearing the hippo
Seth (see Oxford Encyclopedia, vol 2, "Horus" p. 120; Hart, Routledge
Dictionary, "Horus" p. 72-73).

In the battle between Horus and Seth (which lasts 80 years), despite losing an eye,
Horus is successful in
avenging the death of his father Osiris, becoming his legitimate
successor. The injury inflicted by Seth on the eye of Horus is
alluded to in the Pyramid Texts where royal saliva is prescribed for its
cure. The restored eye of Horus becomes, in singular form, the
symbol for a state of soundness or perfection -- the "udjat" eye
(the whole or sound "eye of Horus"). It can also stand for the strength of the monarch; the concept of
kingship; protection against Seth; royal purification agent; offerings at
the festival of the waxing moon wine, etc. Its iconography consists of a
human eye with the cosmetic line emanating from its corner, below it are the
markings of a falcon's cheek. As an amulet the "udjat" was
placed in mummy wrappings or worn on a necklace. In the Middle Kingdom, it
was painted on the sides of rectangular coffins (Hart, p. 73).

Osiris becomes king of the (dead) underworld, and Horus the king of the
living. As mentioned, Horus is usually represented as a falcon, or as a sky god
whose outstretched wings filled the heavens; his sound eye was the sun,
and injured eye the moon.

Horus is one of the earliest attested of the major ancient Egyptian
deities, becoming known as early as the late Pre-dynastic period (Naqada
III / Dynasty 0; c. 3200-3000 BC). The earliest documented chapter in the
career of Horus was as Horus the falcon, god of Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) in
southern Upper Egypt. In this capacity Horus was the patron deity of the
Hierakonpolis monarchy that grew into the historical pharaonic state,
hence the first known national god, the god of kingship. He was still
prominent in the latest temples of the Greco-Roman period (c. 300 BC -
300+ AD), especially at Philae and Edfu as well as Old Coptic and
Greco-Egyptian ritual-power or magical texts.

Horus the falcon was predominantly a sky god and a sun god; as the
former his eyes are the sun and moon, as the latter, he has a sun disk on
his head and is syncretized with the sun-deity Re (or Ra), most often as Re-Harakhty.
Horus the falcon/disk had the epithet "Great God, Lord of Heaven,
Dappled of Plumage." Three main forms of Horus are as the Child, as
the Son of Isis, and as a sun-god.

Horus the Child

In the Pyramid Texts the god is once called "Horus the child with
his finger in his mouth." This aspect refers to his birth and
upbringing in secret by his mother Isis. Born at Khemmis in the northeast
Delta, the young god was hidden in the papyrus marshes, hence his epithet Har-hery-wadj
or "Horus who is upon his papyrus plants." This appears visually
in a wall relief in the temple of Sety I (Dynasty XIX) at Abydos as a hawk
on a column in the shape of a papyrus reed.

From the Egyptian Har-pa-khered literally "Horus-the-child"
the Greeks created the name of Harpokrates. In this form Horus is
depicted as a young vulnerable-looking child, sitting on the knees of
Isis, wearing the sidelock of youth and sometimes sucking his fingers. In
the Late Dynastic cippi objects, Harpokrates acts as an
amuletic force warding off dangerous creatures. Horus as a boy with the
sidelock appears dominating crocodiles, serpents, and other noxious
animals on cippi or apotropaic stelae of "Horus-on-the-Crocodiles,"
the common manifestation of the importance of Horus in healing ritual and
popular ritual practice. The healing of Horus from scorpian stings by Isis
provided the reason for the production of the cippi of Horus and
his role in healing.

The Harsomtus version of Horus can be traced back to the Pyramid
Texts as Har-mau or "Horus the uniter." The idea is the
king as upholder of the unification of North and South Egypt. Since in
temple dogma the divine child of a god and goddess could be thought a
manifestation of the pharaoh, Harsomtus is used merely as
"filling" in a sacred triad. He is e.g. the son of the elder
Horus and Hathor at Edfu temple. Similarly at the temple of Kom-Ombo the
same couple are the parents of Harsomtus under the name of Pa-neb-tawy
or "lord of the Two Lands."

Horus the child / Horus son of Isis and Osiris was often portrayed as a
boy wearing the sidelock and frequently appeared in the arms of his mother
Isis. Bronzes representing him, with or without Isis, were ubiquitous in
Late and Greco-Roman times. On cippi, the head of the child Horus
was often surmounted by a full-faced Bes-head or mask.

Horus the Son of Isis (and Osiris)

The Harsiese ("Horus, the son of Isis") form
emphasizes his legitimacy as the offspring of the union of Isis and Osiris.
In the Pyramid Texts, Harsiese performs the vital "opening the
mouth" ceremony of the dead king, a ritual that restored faculties to
the corpse for their Afterlife, and was carried out at the time of the
burial by the successor-monarch (or Horus). A typical pictorial of this
rite being performed by one pharaoh upon another can be found on the wall
of the sarcophagus chamber in the tomb of Tutankhamun (Dynasty XVIII).

Another funerary priestly title, Horus Iun-mutef, or
"pillar of his mother" is evocative of Horus' success in
regaining the throne of his father Osiris, because of Isis' careful
upbringing of her son. At funeral ceremonies the eldest son of the
deceased -- or a mortuary priest -- dressed in panther skin, played the
role of Horus Iun-mutef burning incense and scattering purified
water before the coffin.

The Har-nedj-itef or "Horus the savior of his father"
(Greek Harendotes) refers to Horus' vindication of his claim to
succeed Osiris, rescuing his father's former earthly domain from the
usurper Seth.

Horus as sun-god

As a cosmic deity Horus is imagined as a falcon whose wings are the
sky, right eye is the sun, left eye the moon. From the reign of King Den
(Dynasty I), on an engraved ivory comb, the hawk's wings as an independent
entity covey the celestial imagery while a hawk in a boat suggests the
journey of the sun-god himself. Textual evidence from the Pyramid Era
refers to Horus as "lord of the sky" or as a god "of the
east"; i.e. the region of sunrise.

The form Harakhti or "Horus of the horizon" refers to
the god rising in the east at dawn to bathe in the "field of
rushes." The Pyramid Texts mention this aspect of the god linked to
the sovereign: the king is said to be born on the eastern sky as Harakhti.
Also since the element -akhti can be a dual form of the noun akhet
(horizon), there is a play on words when the king is given power over the
"two horizons" (i.e. east and west) as Harakhti.

Naturally the Egyptians had to accept that technically their pharoah,
as "son of Re" (or Ra) the sun-god, could not achieve a total
identification with this aspect of Horus, especially with the coalescence
of this form with the Heliopolitan sun-god to become as Re-Harakhty
(or Ra-Harakhti).
Thus Senwosret I (Dynasty XII) was appointed "shepherd of this
land" byHarakhti. In laudatory or propagandist
inscriptions the assimilation of the pharaoh to Harakhti is
maintained, as for instance in the case of the Sudanese King Piye (Dynasty
XXV) on his stela commemorating the conquest of Egypt.

"Horus of Behdet" or the Behdetite was normally shown as a
hawk-winged sun disk with pendant uraei (snakes). The location of
Behdet was in the marshy north-east Delta. It is not mentioned in the
Pyramid Texts and the antiquity of the site as a cult centre of Horus (in
relation to Edfu) cannot yet be ascertained. It becomes an ubiquitous
motif -- e.g. in temple decorations of ceilings or gate lintels, or the
upper border or frame of wall-reliefs or the lunette of stelae.

The form Har-em-akhet or Harmachis (Harmakhis) or
"Horus in the horizon" aptly regionalizes Horus as sun-god.
Pharaonic inscriptions of the New Kingdom reinterpreted the Great Sphinx
at Giza, originally representing King Khafra guarding the approach to his
pyramid, as Harmachis looking towards the eastern horizon.

Aside from the sun disk, Horus in various forms also wore the Double
Crown, a status as king of Egypt; the atef (a type of crown);
triple atef; and a disk with two plumes, etc. There are also
ancient localities with a Horus cult. The two most important sanctuaries
in terms of historical and archaeological evidence belong to Horus of
Nekhen and Horus of Mesen.

By the fifth dynasty (2498 - 2345 BC), the Horus-king also became
"son of Re" the sun god by personifying mythologically the
entire older genealogy of Horus as the goddess Hathor, or "house of
Horus" who was also the spouse of Re and mother of Horus. Horus was
also combined, syncretized, and closely associated with deities other than
Re, notably (but not exclusively) Min, Sopdu, Khonsu, and Montu. The
Greeks associated Horus with Apollo giving rise to the author of the
Hieroglyphica, Horapollo.

While Egyptologists often speak of distinct Horus-gods, combinations,
identifications, and differentiations were possible, and they are
complementary rather than antithetical. A judicious examination of the
various "Horuses" and the sources relating to them supports the
possibility that the roles in question are closely interrelated, so they
may be understood as different aspects or facets of the same divine persona
(see Oxford Encyclopedia, vol 2, "Horus" p. 119ff; Hart, Routledge
Dictionary, "Horus" p. 70ff).

"By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
(1 John 4:6, Douay-Rheims)

Now I will respond to the transcript section of "Zeitgeist"
that talks about Horus and Jesus. I have removed the transcript's
references, although I will talk about the film's sources at the end. My own
documentation, information, and sources are contained above, with a short
bibliography at bottom.

Horus is not (simply) the sun god, although that became one
of his forms. Horus in ancient Egypt was the
falcon god whose name means the high, far-off, or distant
one. Re (or Ra) was the sun god who came to be identified with the
mid-day (or noon) sun. Horus was also the sky god, whose good or sound
eye was the sun, and injured eye the moon.

He is the sun, anthropomorphized, and his life is a series of
allegorical myths involving the sun's movement in the sky.

He is not the sun, but came to be identified with the position
of the rising sun (the sun rises in the east), in such Greek forms
as Harakhti = "Horus of the horizon"; and Harmachis (-khis)
=
"Horus in the horizon." Later he was associated with the sun-god
Re and known as Re-Harakhti. Atum was the god of the setting sun.

From the ancient hieroglyphics in Egypt, we know much about this solar
messiah. For instance, Horus, being the sun, or the light, had an enemy
known as Set and Set was the personification of the darkness or night.

It is hieroglyphs, not hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphic
is an adjective (e.g. hieroglyphic writings). The term "messiah"
comes from the Hebrew Moshiach for "Anointed One." It is
a Judaeo-Christian concept; it does not go back to ancient Egypt. Set (or Seth) was Horus'
brother, or in other versions, his uncle. In one tradition of the Egyptian
myth, Seth was Horus' rival (and usurper of Egypt's throne), in
others, his balance (a bipolar, balanced embodiment of kingship).
As mentioned above: since the beginning of the 20th century in Egyptological research,
much debate has ensued over whether the struggle between Horus and Seth
was primarily historical/geo-political, or cosmic/symbolic. When the full
Osiris complex became visible, Seth appears as the murderer of Osiris and
would-be killer of the child Horus.

Ra (Re) was the sun god and creator of the universe

Osiris was the king of the
underworld (the dead), wife of Isis, and father of Horus

Isis was the sister and wife of Osiris,
and mother of Horus

Seth was brother and killer of Osiris

Horus,
represented by the Falcon symbol, was the son of Osiris and Isis

Ra-Harakhti
(Re-Harakhti) or
simply Harakhti is "Horus of the two horizons"

And, metaphorically speaking, every morning Horus would win the battle
against Set - while in the evening, Set would conquer Horus and send him
into the underworld. It is important to note that "dark
vs. light" or "good vs. evil" is one of the most ubiquitous
mythological dualities ever known and is still expressed on many levels to
this day.

Horus was never sent to the underworld. That was Osiris who was killed
and became lord of the underworld (i.e. the dead), while Horus was king of
the living. In one version of the myth, Horus battles with Seth over an 80
year period, the earth-god Geb in a judgment awards the whole inheritance of Egypt to
Horus, and Horus then becomes ruler of Egypt. From then on, the dead
Egyptian king becomes an "Osiris", and his successor the living
king is a "Horus." That is the primary meaning of the Horus-Seth
battle myth. In the Egyptian Coffin Texts (Spell 148, quoted
above), Horus appears as a falcon who soars up into the sky beyond the flight of the original bird-soul, beyond the stars and all the divinities of olden time whose souls inhabit the constellations. In so doing he brings back light and the assurance of a new day, thus subduing Seth, who personifies the terrors of darkness and death.

Broadly speaking, the story of Horus is as follows: Horus was born on
December 25th

Wrong. The Persian/Roman god Mithras
came to be seen as born on that date, as did Jesus later in the early
Church. The December
25th date is not found in the Gospels or the New Testament. It was a
later adoption by the Catholic Church: "In the first half of the fourth century AD the worship of the
Sol Invictus was the last great pagan cult the Church had to conquer, and it did so in part with the establishment of
Christmas...At the head of the Deposition Martyrum of the so-called Roman Chronograph of 354 AD (the Philocalian Calendar) there is listed the
natus Christus in Betleem Judaeae ('the birth of Christ in Bethlehem of
Judea') as being celebrated on December 25. The Deposition was originally composed in 336 AD, so Christmas dates back at least that far."
(See "Santa or Satan: Reply to a Funny Fundy")

The date
of the birth of Horus according to some online sources is during the
Egyptian month of Khoiak (which corresponds to our November
month). The Egyptian calendar had three seasons, each four months and 30
days/month. The season of Akhet is months (in Greek) Thot, Phaophi, Athyr, Khoiak; the season of Peret
(or Winter) is months (in Greek) Tybi, Mekhir, Phamenoth, Pharmouthi; the season of Chemou
(or Summer) is months (in Greek) Pakhon, Payni, Epiph, Mesore. See online sources: Egyptian
Festival Calender ; Egyptian
calendar months and seasons ; Grand
Festivals ; Festival
Rituals. We also know where Horus was supposedly born (at Khemmis or Chemmis in the Nile Delta of
northern Upper Egypt).

of the virgin Isis-Meri.

Wrong again. Her name was simply Isis (in Greek). Her true Egyptian
name is transliterated simply A-s-e-t or 3st
(all woman names in Egyptian end with the "t"). Her name (Aset)
means "seat" or "throne" (Oxford Encyclopedia,
vol 2, "Isis" p. 188) and "the goddess's name is written in
hieroglyphs with a sign that represents a throne, indicating the crucial
role that she plays in the transmission of the kingship of Egypt"
(Hart, Routledge Dictionary, "Isis" p. 80).

And she
definitely was not a virgin when she conceived Horus with the revivified
Osiris, if these words mean anything: "[Osiris was] revived enough to have an erection and
impregnate his wife" (Lesko, p. 162); "After having sexual intercourse..."
(Dunand / Zivie-Coche, p. 39); "revivified the sexual member of Osiris
and became pregnant by him" (Richard Wilkinson, p. 146); "revive the
sexual powers of Osiris" (Pinch, p. 80).

A virgin birth, or more properly, a virginal conception,
is by definition non-sexual.

His birth was accompanied by a star in the east

No evidence any stars are mentioned in the birth of Horus.

which in turn, three kings followed to locate and adorn the new-born
savior

There are no "three kings" in the birth of Horus, and there
are no "three kings" in the Bible either. Read Matthew 2 for
yourself:

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold,
there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he that is born King of the Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.'" (Matthew 2:1-2
KJV)

They are not called "kings" but "wise men" -- and
they are not three in number, we don't know how many there were.
Three gifts are later mentioned (gold, frankincense, myrrh) in
verse 11, and these were equated with the wise men. Perhaps we are
thinking of the Christmas carol "We three kings of Orient are...."
? Nice tune and lyrics, but it's always best to cross-check with the
biblical text.

At the age of 12, he was a prodigal child teacher

There is a form known as "Horus the Child" but he
wasn't a prodigal teacher. He was kept hidden away by his mother, until he
was ready to be ruler of Egypt. The young god was hidden in the papyrus marshes, hence his epithet Har-hery-wadj
or "Horus who is upon his papyrus plants."

and at the age of 30 he was baptized by a figure known as Anup
and thus began his
ministry

No evidence of any baptism for Horus, and no evidence of any
"ministry" of Horus. Anubis (or Anup or Anpu) means Royal Child, and is usually depicted as
jackal-headed or a wild dog-headed man, or a reclining black jackal. Anubis was the great protector god, guiding the soul through the underworld. He was also the Lord of embalming, and through this is connected with incense and perfumery.
No baptism here. (See The
Jackal Headed God or Egyptian
Animal Gods).

Horus had 12 disciples he traveled about with

Horus had NO 12 disciples he traveled with: remember he became ruler
of Egypt after a long battle with Seth. Perhaps you could call all
the subjects in Egypt his "disciples" (which means followers).

There were technically the "Followers of Horus [son of
Isis]" called the Shemsu Heru, mentioned in the Liturgy of Funeral Offerings
and purification ceremony. These were a group of beings who were closely connected with Osiris, and having "followed" him in this world they passed after him into the Other
World (of the dead), where they became his ministrants and messengers. There
were also followers (a different group) of Horus the Elder called the Mesentiu who are "workers in metal" or
blacksmiths (see The
Liturgy of Funeral Offerings, the fourth ceremony, commentary by
Budge).

performing miracles such as healing the sick and
walking on water

There are some healing "miracles" or magic associated with
Horus, but this is with Horus the Child, not Horus the Elder or his
adult forms. In
the Late Dynastic cippi objects, Harpokrates (Horus-the-child)
acts as an
amuletic force warding off dangerous creatures such as crocodiles, serpents, and other noxious
animals, etc. "Horus-on-the-Crocodiles" was a common manifestation of the importance of Horus in healing ritual. The healing of Horus from scorpian stings by Isis
provided the reason for the production of the cippi of Horus and
his role in healing. The power of this healing seems to come from his
mother, Isis, who was indeed the "goddess of immense magical
power" (Hart, Routledge Dictionary, "Isis" p. 79ff).

Horus was known by many gestural names such as The Truth, The
Light, God's Annointed Son, The Good Shepherd, The Lamb of God, and many
others

Wrong, no evidence for these names. The "forms" of the Horus-god
are precisely what I listed above, under these categories: Horus the Child
(healing / magical titles such as "Horus-on-the-Crocodiles");
Horus as son of Isis and Osiris ("pillar of his mother";
"savior of his father"); and Horus as a sun-god ("lord of
the sky"; god "of the east"; Horus of / in "the
horizon"; and later associated with Re).

After being betrayed by Typhon, Horus was crucified,
buried for 3 days, and thus, resurrected.

Typhon is also known as Seth, his rival brother (or uncle). Horus was NOT
crucified, was NOT buried for 3 days, and thus, was NOT
resurrected. Your sources are wrong. In some versions of his battle with
Seth, Horus had one or both of his eyes injured, but he was not killed. It
was his father Osiris who was killed, dismembered, reconstituted, and
revived by Isis, his magical mother.

These attributes of Horus, whether original or not, seem to permeate in
many cultures of the world, for many other gods are found to have the same
general mythological structure

Krishna
of India, born of the virgin Devaki with a star in the east signaling his
coming, performed miracles with his disciples, and upon his death was
resurrected.

There is some magic and a resurrection/ascension associated with Krishna.
Otherwise, wrong.

Dionysus
of Greece, born of a virgin on December 25th, was a traveling teacher who
performed miracles such as turning water into wine, he was referred to as
the "King of Kings," "God's Only Begotten Son,"
"The Alpha and Omega," and many others, and upon his death, he
was resurrected.

Mithra
of Persia, born of a virgin on December 25th, he had 12 disciples and
performed miracles, and upon his death was buried for 3 days and thus
resurrected, he was also referred to as "The Truth," "The
Light," and many others. Interestingly, the sacred day of worship of
Mithra was Sunday.

The fact of the matter is there are numerous saviors, from different
periods, from all over the world, which subscribe to these general
characteristics.

The fact of the matter is, your "sources" are lying to you.
Get some better sources. Go to a university library. Do some research.
It's not really that hard.

The question remains: why these attributes, why the virgin birth on
December 25th, why dead for three days and the inevitable resurrection,
why 12 disciples or followers?

No questions remain. These are unique to Jesus Christ. See
my article, especially the last section "Christianity vs. Pagan
'Mystery' Religions."

Furthermore, the character of Jesus, a literary and astrological
hybrid, is most explicitly a plagiarization of the Egyptian Sun-god Horus.

Totally wrong and demolished above. We'll get to some of the
"astrology" material below.

For example, inscribed about 3500 years, on the walls of the Temple of
Luxor in Egypt are images of the enunciation, the immaculate conception,
the birth, and the adoration of Horus. The images begin with Thaw
announcing to the virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus, then Nef the
holy ghost impregnating the virgin, and then the virgin birth and the
adoration. This is exactly the story of Jesus' miracle
conception.

The "enunciation" should be the "Annunciation"
(March 25 is the feast day in Catholic liturgical calendars), and
"immaculate conception" refers to the Catholic teaching about Mary's
conception without Original Sin (December 8 is the feast day), not to
a virginal conception. Just to be clear: Mary's own conception and birth
from her mother was normal in the
biological sense; it was Jesus who was virginally conceived and virgin
born (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38).

the Luxor inscription does not depict impregnation by a spirit, but involves very real sex

the woman involved is not Isis (e.g. Horus' mother) but the mythical Queen of Egypt in an archetypal sense

Panel 4: (often cited as key) describes the god Amun jumping into bed with the human Queen on her wedding night

Amun's buddy Thoth stands by the bed to watch, and after Amun "does everything he wished with her" she and Amun engage in some divine pillow talk

Amun tells her that she is impregnated and will bear his son, Amenophis (or
"Amun is loved [or satisfied]")

Amun, not Thoth, announces the conception; and Kneph only forms the fetus and the soul and unites them, he does not impregnate the Queen

Panel 8: the ankh touched to the Queen's nose, does not depict an impregnation since she is already pregnant and "showing"

Rather, it is the birth that is announced, not the conception; Kneph proceeds to impart the god's soul into the divine fetus using the ankh

Panel 9: depicts the birth

the adoration scene only involves important state officials (or perhaps lesser divinities),
not kings or "magi"

the cycle depicted at Luxor does not match up in the same sequence with the Christian narrative: the annunciation follows the conception in the Egyptian cycle (but in the same panel)

the actual Luxor sequence is conception and annunciation in panel 4, gestation and quickening in panel 8 (also a second speech of assurance), birth in panel 9, and then in panels 9 onward an adoration, and a confirmation

this type of sequence is found throughout Greek and Roman mythology, so Christians need not have gotten the idea from Egypt

In fact, the literary similarities between the Egyptian religion and
the Christian religion are staggering.

They are not, since there are virtually NO similarities. A blogger
(Consigliere) posting on an atheist site concludes in his analysis "Ending
the Myth of Horus":

"....I find the comparison
between Horus and Jesus to consist of the following: they were of royal
descent, they allegedly worked miracles and there were murder plots
against them."

I concur with these, although the healing miracles are associated with
Horus-the-Child. Horus was (like Jesus) a "son of God" since he
was son of Isis and Osiris, and he was (like Jesus) a lord and a king, as
Jesus was "King of Kings" and "Lord of Lords" (book of
Revelation).

The "sources" used for Zeitgeist are outdated, unreliable,
non-academic, non-scholarly, speculative, and/or conspiracy-laden tomes
written by folks who are not trained in biblical scholarship, historical
Jesus studies, Egyptology, or related fields, and/or rely on other
non-scholarly, outdated, pseudo-historical books, and are therefore filled
with errors:

Acharya S, Suns of God and The
Christ Conspiracy;

Gerald Massey, The Historical Jesus and Mythical
Christ (orig c. 1900) and Ancient Egypt: The Light of the World
(orig 1907)

Thomas Doane,
Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions (orig 1882)

Another two that were left out but argue along the same lines are Kersey
Graves, The World's Sixteen Crucified
Saviors (orig 1875) and Tom Harpur, The Pagan Christ
(2004). John Jackson's Christianity Before Christ (1985) was
also used, but he simply copies and quotes Massey, Kuhn, Churchward,
Graves, and other pseudo-scholarship.

"According to Harpur, there is no evidence that Jesus of Nazareth
ever lived. He claims that virtually all of the details of the life and
teachings of Jesus have their counterpart in Egyptian religious ideas. He
does not quote any contemporary Egyptologist or recognized academic
authority on world religions nor appeal to any of the standard reference
books in Egyptology or to any primary sources. Rather, he is entirely
dependent on the work of [Alvin Boyd] Kuhn [1880-1963]
(and [Godfrey] Higgins
[1771-1834] & [Gerald] Massey [1828-1907])."

Gasque sent an email to "twenty leading Egyptologists -- in Canada,
USA, UK, Australia, Germany, and Austria" in order to examine the
following claims:

That the name of Jesus was derived from the Egyptian 'Iusa'
which means "the coming divine Son who heals or saves"

That the god Horus is "an Egyptian Christos, or Christ....He
and his mother, Isis, were the forerunners of the Christian Madonna
and Child, and together they constituted a leading image in Egyptian
religion for millennia prior to the Gospels."

That Horus also "had a virgin birth, and that in one of his
roles, he was 'a fisher of men with twelve followers.' "

That "the letters KRST appear on Egyptian mummy coffins many
centuries BCE, and....this word, when the vowels are filled in, is
really Karast or Krist, signifying Christ."

That the doctrine of the incarnation "is in fact the oldest,
most universal mythos known to religion. It was current in the Osirian
religion in Egypt at least four thousand years BCE."

What Gasque found in response is the following, also put in bullet
points:

Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen of the University of
Liverpool pointed out that not one of these men (Kuhn, Higgins, or Massey)
is mentioned in M. L.
Bierbrier's Who Was Who in Egyptology (3rd ed, 1995), nor is
any of their works listed in Ida B. Pratt's very extensive
bibliography on Ancient Egypt.

Only one of the ten experts who responded to my questions had
ever heard of Kuhn, Higgins or Massey.

The responding scholars were unanimous in dismissing the
suggested etymologies for Jesus and Christ.

Ron Leprohan, Professor of Egyptology at the University of
Toronto, pointed out that while "sa" means "son" in ancient
Egyptian and "iu" means "to come," but Kuhn / Harpur have the syntax
all wrong.

In any event, the name "Iusa" simply does not exist in
Egyptian. The name "Jesus" is Greek from a universally recognized west
Semitic name (Jeshua), borne not merely by the central figure in
the New Testament but also by many other people in the first
century.

There is no evidence for the idea that Horus was virgin born.

There is no evidence for the idea that Horus was "a fisher of
men" or that his followers (the King's officials were called "Followers of Horus") were ever twelve in
number.

KRST is the word for "burial" ("coffin" is written
"KRSW"),
but there is no evidence whatsoever to link this with the Greek title
"Christos" or Hebrew "Mashiah."

There is no mention of Osiris in Egyptian texts until about 2350
BC, so Harpur's reference to the origins of Osirian religion is off by
more than a millennium and a half.

Elsewhere Harpur refers to "Jesus in Egyptian lore as early as
18,000 BCE" and he quotes Kuhn as claiming that "the Jesus who stands
as the founder of Christianity was at least 10,000 years of age." In
fact, the earliest extant writing that we have dates from about 3200 BCE.

Kuhn / Harper's redefinition of "incarnation" and rooting
this in Egyptian religion is regarded as bogus by all of the Egyptologists
with whom I have consulted.

According to one: "Only the pharaoh was believed to have a divine
aspect, the divine power of kingship, incarnated in the human being
currently serving as the king. No other Egyptians ever believed they
possessed even 'a little bit of the divine'."

Virtually none of the alleged evidence for the views put forward
in The Pagan Christ is documented by reference to original sources;
the notes refer mainly to Kuhn, Higgins, Massey, or some other
long-out-of-date work.

W. Ward Gasque holds a Ph.D. from Manchester University (UK). A graduate of
Harvard University's Institute for Educational Leadership (1993), he is
President of the Pacific Association for Theological Studies.

Evangelical biblical scholar Ben Witherington in a critique of the
"Zeitgeist" movie writes on the sources used by the filmmakers:

"What do we notice about this list of sources? Not a single one of these authors and sources are experts in the Bible, Biblical history, the Ancient Near East, Egyptology, or any of the cognate fields. Many of these sources are quite old, and the arguments they present have long since been shown to be weak....The point of my listing these sources is that they are not reliable sources of information about the origins of Christianity, Judaism, or much of anything else of relevance to this discussion."
(Ben Witherington, from The Zeitgeist of the 'Zeitgeist Movie')

Here are some bullet points from Dr. Witherington's blog article on the
movie's Egyptian, biblical, and "astrological" (or "astro-theology")
arguments and
errors:

Egyptian thought was polytheistic and despised by early Jews; what
is discussed in the Book of the Dead and elsewhere in Egyptian literature is an afterlife in another
world, not a coming back to this one in the same body;

there is no hint of any direct influence of Egyptian religion per
se, in the OT or NT; you will not be finding seminars at the national SBL meeting on how Zoroastrian religion and
Egyptian religion explains all we need to know about the origins of Biblical
religion; what you can find in the Bible is the deconstruction of other culture's myths, or better
the de-mythologizing of such material;

George Earnest Wright of Harvard used to stress that Jews were not on the whole a myth-making
people; they grounded their stories in history, particularly, salvation
history; when they used mythological images (like e.g. the image of the great sea monster Leviathan) they used them in
historical ways for historical purposes (e.g. Revelation 12);

the filmmakers have not bothered to consult any expert commentators on the Hebrew or Greek
texts of the Bible; they simply cite the King James Version;

it is based on shabby "research" and actually no historical understanding
about Jesus and the origins of Christianity;

it is partially true that cultures have always personified and anthropomorphized the sun and stars,
but it certainly isn't an explanation for the origins of Hebrew religion, which
critiqued sun- and moon-god worship, denied there were multiple deities in the heavens, and ridiculed the notion that stars
were gods who controlled one's fate; in the OT you will notice that the sun and moon are seen as controlled by
Yahweh;

when the subject of "sons of God" and the one true God does come up,
the phrase in Genesis 6 refers to fallen angels who mate with human
women; later in the OT it refers to the king, and finally to the last great
king -- the messiah; there is nothing whatsoever in any of this that is remotely close to the idea of sun worship, or seeing the sun itself as a
deity;

there is no reason to associate the word "sun" with the word
"son," and simply blending together all ideas about both in
antiquity, a syncretistic thinking, is at the heart of this film, and leads to massive
distortions of religious history;

the analysis of Egyptian mythology in the film has very few things
right; it gets most of the story of Horus wrong; claims the Horus myth says he was born on
Dec 25th, born of a virgin or virginal conception, star in the east, worshipped by kings,
was a teacher by 12; this disinformation is refuted by analysis of the proper
sources (e.g. see my bibliography below).

the film is guilty not only of falsely blending together various different
religions which developed largely regionally and independently of each other,
it falsifies the claims made in the Egyptian myths; ironically it does a disservice to all
religions;

other egregious errors in his presentation of Horus: was not called the lamb of God,
was not crucified and resurrected, even in the myth;

the story of Horus is of course the story of the rebirth of the sun in
the east, and is based on the cycles of nature, not on any historical claims at all, unlike the story of
Jesus; the Horus story does not include many of the elements the film claims it
does;

it is not true that it was believed that all these deities were born on
Dec 25th; in any case the Bible never claims or suggests Jesus was born on such a
date;

Nor is it true that all these stories have basically the same elements and
pattern; the film is an equal opportunity distorter of world religions in general;

the film reads the story of Jesus back into these other mythological
stories, and then claims the story of Jesus comes from these other
stories; this is bad history and bad religious analysis (also called
circular reasoning);

to my knowledge there is no story that dates from before the time of
Jesus that has most of the specific elements listed as distinguishing
the Jesus story: virginal conception, crucifixion, and bodily
resurrection of a divine Son of God;

the Hebrews already long since had a religion when they went to Egypt both in the time of Joseph and in the time of
Moses; experts in ancient Hebrew religion will tell you (e.g. Ancient
Israel by Roland DeVaux) that the differences between a monotheistic or henotheistic religion that
is grounded in historical persons and actions, and the Egyptian mythology which is grounded in the cycles of nature, the rising and setting of the sun, the motions of the
stars, are considerable;

see for example the ancient poem in Psalm 8 -- the sun, moon, and stars are all seen
as the works of God's fingers, like a child molding things out of playdough;
the Biblical God is a God of creation, one who has made all things that
exist; in that same psalm we see that human beings are the crown of God's creation, created in God's
image;

notice the anti-anthropomorphic theology here: God is not the sun, he does not have a son that is the sun, indeed
creation is simply something that the one true God has made; the important part
is this desacralizes nature; Nature is not a god or gods, it is not
divine (Romans 1:20-25), and neither are human beings as human beings.

this Judaeo-Christian idea about the world and its creatures is the basis of modern science, which assumes that creation is not God, and therefore is not defiled by inquiry, scientific
examination, experiment, etc; the attempt to portray Biblical religion as anti-science, knows neither the origins of Biblical
religion nor the origins of modern science;

the scholarly work on the star in the east, if it is historical,
centers on the conjunction of planets, specifically Jupiter and Venus
(e.g. the Nativity); it does not center on Sirius, the dog star; Bethlehem certainly does mean the
"house of bread" but it has nothing to do with the constellation Virgo, which indeed is
short for virgin; it has to do with this region being fertile enough to support both grass and
wheat -- hence shepherds and farmers (i.e. The "Fertile Crescent"
along the Nile); Jesus' mother's name is Miryam -- from the OT sister of Moses, Miriam. Maria or Mary is simply our
anglicized way of referring to that name;

the attempt to explain the origins of the story of the death and resurrrection of
Jesus on the basis of the Winter Solstice and what happens on Dec 22-25
is laughable; the Gospels are clear that Jesus was not in the tomb for three
whole days, only parts of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
(he rose "on the third day"); if an attempt was made by the Evangelists to conform this to some astrological phenomena or pattern, this is
inexplicable;

there is no association in the NT of either the death or the resurrection of Jesus with the
Winter Solstice or what happens then; the story of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection are not told in light of such thinking
at all; indeed the notion of bodily resurrection had long existed in Judaism before the time of Jesus (see e.g.
N.T. Wright's Resurrection of the Son of God), and was not concocted in light of astrology or any other nature
religion;

nature religions are grounded in the cycle of the seasons, and focus on fertility gods;
this is very different from religions based on history and revelation or
prophecy; the syncretism of the film does not allow that there are different types of world religions,
with differing origins;

the twelve disciples do not represent the 12 constellations of the
Zodiac; there was this little entity called the 12 tribes of Israel, going back to Jacob and his 12
sons; those stories in Genesis are not astrological in character at all, but rather are explanations of a historical origins
of a people; the 12 disciples are chosen by Jesus (Matthew 10), not because he was a stargazer, but because he was attempting to
reform, and indeed re-form Israel;

the twelve disciples represent the 12 tribes of Israel, and Jesus promised
that at the eschaton they will be sitting on 12 thrones, judging those 12
tribes; once more, this is historical and eschatological thinking, not
astrological thinking, and the claim that the Bible has more to do with astrology than
anything else, can only be called a category mistake;

clearly the filmmakers have done no work whatsoever in the study of the various genre of Biblical literature which
they could have gotten from any standard introduction to the Bible, even those written by agnostics and
skeptics;

the origins of the symbol of the cross is not derived from the cross
imposed on the
circle of the 12 astrological signs of the Zodiac; consider the most basic ancient zodiac pattern we
have, e.g. the floor of the synagogue at Sepphoris; Jews, like every other
group of agrarian peoples were interested in the weather and the seasons. Do we find a cross pattern? No.
The filmmakers have done no first hand historical work on ancient Zodiac symbols, they have simply believed the pablum imbibed from various
out-dated, and inaccurate sources;

the origin of the symbol of the cross of course derives from the Roman practice of
crucifixion, not from some supposed astrological pattern; Jesus died in 30
AD on a cross outside of Jerusalem, a victim of Roman injustice as even the
Romans admitted;

much is made about how in 1 AD a new "age" or astrological cycle
begins, after the age of the Ram; however, Jesus was born somewhere between 2-6
BC, not in 1 AD; and we know this because Jesus was born while Herod the Great was still king of the Holy land, and the records
are clear that Herod died about 2 BC; ergo: Jesus had to be born before then;

Jesus' birth certainly did not usher in the age of Pisces or the
fish; the fish symbol comes into Christianity from the gematric value of the Greek word
ICHTHUS
-- with each letter standing for a word, in this case Insous, Christos,
Theos, Huios
and Soter -- Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior.

Does Moses represent the new age of Ares? Nope. Was the golden calf an attempt to worship Taurus the bull constellation? Probably not.
Do Jews blow a ram's horn because Moses threw his tablets down in disgust at the worship of Taurus and inaugurated the age of
the Ram? I am sure Moses would be surprised to hear it.

The viewers of such a film in a Jesus-haunted culture which is Biblically illiterate
need to check everything carefully (cf. 1 Thess 5:21; 1 Peter 3:15), especially outlandish historical
and religious claims.

Ben Witherington III is professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological
Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the
M. Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies.

The author of more than thirty books, including The Brother of
Jesus, What Have They Done with Jesus?, and The Living Word
of God: Rethinking the Theology of the Bible, he has twice won the Christianity Today award for one of the best biblical studies books of the year, and he has presented seminars for churches, colleges, and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Witherington writes for many church and scholarly publications, is a regular contributor to
Christianity Today and Beliefnet.com, and has been featured widely in the national media.

Response: This is simply the Celtic cross, characteristic symbol of Celtic Christianity, forming a major part of Celtic art. It is also referred to as the high cross, Irish Cross, or the Cross of
Iona
(an isle in Scotland).

There are many representations of the Christian cross:

the Latin cross (from the 2nd-3rd century AD);

the Greek cross;

the cross of Calvary or Graded Cross;

the Celtic cross distinguished by the circle and intricate designs;

the Russian Orthodox cross consists of three bars, the lowest bar slanted, the top bar represents "INRI" sign placed over Jesus' head;

the papal cross is the official symbol of the papacy, the three bars of the cross most likely represent the three realms of the Pope's authority;

the baptismal cross has eight points, symbolizing regeneration, formed by combining the Greek cross with the Greek letter chi (X), the first letter of "Christ" in Greek;

the budded cross, its trefoils represent the Trinity;

the conqueror's or victor's cross is another Greek cross;

the triumphant cross with orb represents Christ's reign over the world;

an inverted cross is the cross of St. Peter who according to tradition was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die the same way as Christ.

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Do all of these too come from Egyptian mythology or paganism? If so, then what's the astrological
or zodiac connection with these?

"All the historical examples of actual 'Celtic Crosses' are from indisputably Christian contexts. The Aberlemno Stone in Angus, the great High Crosses at Clonmacnoise, Monasterboise, Kells, Iona and many other medieval monastic sites are all clearly made in Christian times, under Christian patronage and according to conventional Christian iconography." (article by Stephen Walker)

The most ancient Celtic or Irish crosses date from the 7th century AD
forward. Even admitting a "pagan connection" in the symbols, this
adoption by the Church would have
nothing to do with the Catholic Christianity founded by Jesus Christ and
His apostles in the first century, and the Christian faith passed on
(2 Thess 2:15; 2 Timothy 2:2; Jude 3) to their
immediate successor bishops of the Church. The cross is a later Christian
symbol representing the first-century crucifixion of Jesus, an historical
and saving event described in detail in all four Gospels, mentioned by the
Acts of the
Apostles (Acts 2:23,36; 4:10; 5:30; 10:39; 13:29), and the earliest writings of St. Paul (1
Cor 1:13-23; 2:2-8; 15:1ff; Gal 2:20; 3:1,13; 6:12-14; Phil 2:8; Col 1:20;
2:14-15; 1 Thess 2:14-16; Heb 6:6; 12:2; etc). This has nothing to do with astrology ("astro-theology")
or the zodiac.

Bible myths and their parallels in other religions, being a
comparison of the Old and New Testament myths and miracles with those
of heathen nations of antiquity, considering also their origin and
meaning by Thomas William Doane (University Books, 1971, orig
1882)